Two Victorian farmers convicted and fined of animal cruelty
A northern Victorian farmer and another in Gippsland have been fined thousands of dollars after separate acts of aggravated animal cruelty.
Two Victorian farmers have been fined thousands of dollars and convicted of separate acts of aggravated animal cruelty.
Northern Victorian farmer Peter Sandals pleaded guilty to animal cruelty at the Shepparton Magistrates’ Court last month where he was convicted and fined $10,000.
Sandals pleaded guilty to three aggravated cruelty charges and one count of failure to provide veterinarian or other appropriate attention or treatment under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986.
The charges against Sandals followed an investigation which began in April 2023 when Agriculture Victoria officers attended an Invergordon property to follow up an animal welfare report.
The court heard the officers observed empty water troughs and about 47 cattle in poor body condition and dehydrated. Twenty cattle had recently died and seven were euthanised by the officers.
There was also a deceased cow with a horn penetrating the temporal and frontal lobe.
Sandals was also ordered by the court to be subject to monitoring for five years to ensure all cattle under his ownership and care receive proper and sufficient supervision and drink.
Meanwhile, West Gippsland farmer Barry Hillbrick also recently pleaded guilty to aggravated cruelty offences and a failure to fulfil a Notice to Comply, as he faced the La Trobe Magistrates’ Court, where he was fined $8000 with conviction.
In April 2023 Agriculture Victoria officers attended a Coalville property to follow up an animal welfare report.
On this visit to the farm a Notice to Comply was issued to Hillbrick to provide veterinary or other treatment for a cow with a significant discharge and lesion present on the right eye socket.
Officers attended again the following week to assess compliance with this notice, but saw the cow was in an unchanged condition and no treatment or other attention had been offered to the cow.
The cow was euthanised on-farm by Agriculture Victoria officers due to the large cancerous growth which had engulfed the eye.
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